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A Chicken Check-In, Down By the Newest Old Key Maps Store

The markings left behind by the Key Maps store in the wake of its second move since 2015 are still hanging out this afternoon alongside the leasing notice near the shop’s former place at the east end of the Richmond Avenue Shopping Center strip mall, just east of Fountainview Dr. The Key Maps folks are back inside the Inner Loop again, this time on Durham St. next door to the Dirty Hairy Dog Wash. The most recently former Key Maps location, shown above, has picked up a new neighbor itself since the cartographymonger’s departure: the ex-Subway at the end of the strip is about to reopen as essentialist fried chicken joint Krisp Bird & Batter. A sign on the door says Krisp will be open on Monday:

3 Comment

Key Map is hanging on to an industry that has left it behind. I loved my Key Map in the 80’s and 90’s. Never got lost. But those days are gone. And when will HEB finally start building in the Heights? And what happened to the promised Whole Foods 365 on Main and the North Loop?

I’m stunned that Key Maps is still a thing. I delivered beer in Houston in the late 90s and those things were indispensable. Today, unfortunately for them, every phone is a Key Map that fits in your pocket and has GPS.

My Key Map book has got me thru several times, my phone maps SUCK when I’m looking for new roads. Also my phone is always dead and my kids steal my chargers. There are over 2.5 million people in Houston area I would like to be one of them with a keymap if I need to get out of town and the phones don’t work. Bought a wall map from them the other day, really nice. there address is 1212 Durham, between washington and the railroad tracks.